October 2023 Wrestling Discussion

[Cobra Commander]

AEW ran the Forum pretty recently, and I recall the seating arrangement behind the hard cam looking very intimate. But for a few obvious reasons, wrestling shows prefer not having the entrance directly in the middle of the hard cam

[Niners Fan in CT]

Wasn't the old Boston Garden setup with the entrance facing the hard cam as well? 

[zendragon]

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

The Felt Forum? For a second, I thought you meant the Fabulous Forum, which I think is a church now.

you might be mixing up The Forum and The Grand Olympic Auditorium 

Grand Olympic Auditorium - Wikipedia

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

The Felt Forum? For a second, I thought you meant the Fabulous Forum, which I think is a church now.

Dude, it ain't been the Felt Forum since the Reagan administration . 

1 hour ago, Cobra Commander said:

AEW ran the Forum pretty recently, and I recall the seating arrangement behind the hard cam looking very intimate. But for a few obvious reasons, wrestling shows prefer not having the entrance directly in the middle of the hard cam

They had a half decent boxing card over the weekend there, but they darkened the audience so I am guessing they didn't sell a bunch of tickets cause it's a pretty big venue. However, from the shows there recently, you can tell it's been remodeled and renovated to the point where you don't have to compromised on capacity in order to fit a set in. I would assume the same could be said of Madison Square Garden. I think that was the main reason for a good while why they chose to go bare bones with the sets unless it was a Raw or Smackdown taping.

Again, the same could be say for boxing when Felix Trinidad was fighting in his heyday or you would have a megafight there like Lennox Lewis vs. Evander Holyfield. You couldn't fit another person in the venue if you tried.

[Elsalvajeloco]

FWIW Here are some great images from The Forum during a good portion of the heyday of Forum Boxing:

https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/the-great-western-forum-boxing?assettype=image&family=editorial&phrase=the great western forum boxing&sort=mostpopular

When the shows would air locally on Prime Sports (I believe on KCAL TV in the final years before the Forum Boxing brand was closed by Dr. Buss), the hard cam would be always on the tunnel right near where that giant Valvoline ad seen in some of these images.

The Grand Olympic Auditorium has a ton of history as well, but probably more prolific for wrestling as much as boxing. Boxing promoters like Bob Arum (specifically cause De La Hoya being from East Los Angeles would easily sell out a smaller arena fresh out of the 1992 Summer Olympics) and I believe Cedric Kushner as well tried to bring back the Grand Olympic Auditorium in in the mid 90s, but I don't think it was an intriguing sale to an audience who had already gravitated to seeing boxing at the Forum. Also, it was antiquated compared the venues around the area in addition to what was going on in Las Vegas, where Southern California had to cede a bunch of it's boxing business to once they got actual indoor arenas and not what amounted to a big ugly looking shed with a roof (the Caesars Palace Sports Pavilion) and cramped oversized ballrooms (the Hilton Center and the Mirage).

[Elsalvajeloco]

2 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

Wasn't the old Boston Garden setup with the entrance facing the hard cam as well? 

IIRC Survivor Series 93 has it like that but I am not sure if every one was like that especially the matches that would wind up on various Coliseum home video releases and Prime Time Wrestling.

Keep in mind, Boston Garden was gone by the time they really started dealing with all the intricate set designs. 

When they did Raw from like the Mid Hudson Civic Center, the tunnel would have the Raw logo but the actual entrance would be almost diagonal from the ring. However, I am guessing when they did house shows there, the wrestlers would come out from the tunnel and not the entrance only there for TV purposes.

[Infinit]

I could see them doing an entrance kind of like they had for Backlash this year. 

[Cobra Commander]

Despite me thinking this video disappeared, well I was wrong… the 18 minutes of Michael Hayes cutting local promos for the UWF is still on YouTube

 

[Technico Support]

On 10/21/2023 at 1:05 PM, Octopus said:

That was maybe my greatest typo. I will not correct it because I feel like Terry would crack up about it after beating me up. 

Don't sweat it...every single time I try to type "shot," I type "shit" first

22 hours ago, FourPostMassacre said:

  Reveal hidden contents

D as in DICK THE COCK JOHNSON

Ok so that spoiler is a running joke from the show just to be clear! 

Or maybe it's not, brother!

13 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Dude, it ain't been the Felt Forum since the Reagan administration . 

 

All I remember about "The Felt Forum" is that it was host to boxing and Eddie Murphy Raw.  "Nothin from nothin leaves nothin.  Must've done somethin.  Motherfucker punched you in the mouth!"

[odessasteps]

I always remember "Felt Forum" as the answer to a particularly nasty Sternac question from about 1986. 

[Curt McGirt]

I had to press play to find out that Hayes wasn't wearing a dress.

[Cobra Commander]

“Michael, you have to cut 18 different local promos about why you’ve been forced to wear a dress”

[Log]

There HAD to have been a "loser wears a dress" stipulation at some point in Mid South, right?

That just screams Bill Watts.

[GodzillaPerez]

For "The Last Stampede" series of matches between The Midnight Express vs Stagger Lee and Bill Watts, I think most of those had either "Cornette wears a dress" or "Cornette has to dress as a baby" stipulations if the Midnights lost.

The Midnights lost every match.

[JLowe]

2 hours ago, Technico Support said:

Don't sweat it...every single time I try to type "shot," I type "shit" first

Or maybe it's not, brother!

All I remember about "The Felt Forum" is that it was host to boxing and Eddie Murphy Raw.  "Nothin from nothin leaves nothin.  Must've done somethin.  Motherfucker punched you in the mouth!"

I saw REM at the Felt Forum for the Pageantry tour (Life's Rich Pageant album) in November 1986. My first real concert, and the day after my birthday.

[odessasteps]

They shaved Cornette’s head and then had to bring in a guy from Memphis as his cousin (Pervy?) and shave HIS head to honor the stipulation. 
 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited October 24, 2023 by odessasteps

[Zakk_Sabbath]

19 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

AEW ran the Forum pretty recently, and I recall the seating arrangement behind the hard cam looking very intimate. But for a few obvious reasons, wrestling shows prefer not having the entrance directly in the middle of the hard cam

While you're fully correct, I do have to say, AEW did a really, really nice job of having it there during the Daily's Place/COVID-era, so for that reason (and also because it seems like the kinda thing TK would be into, as 'one of us') it does kind of surprise me that they haven't attempted the MSG-style short aisle anywhere yet.

Edit - wanted to share quickly while we were on it: when I was little, I thought ECW was way bigger than it was because I caught an episode from I believe the Mid-Hudson Civic Center, and I assumed it was the Garden because of the short middle aisle there, and because their TV aired on MSG Network (kid logic)

Edited October 24, 2023 by Zakk_Sabbath

[stinger12]

Crazy Question. Did WWE Shop ever sell an AWA Championship belt?  I remember I had one and sold it.  But I cannot remember where I got it from and which version it was.  Thanks. 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

26 minutes ago, stinger12 said:

Crazy Question. Did WWE Shop ever sell an AWA Championship belt?  I remember I had one and sold it.  But I cannot remember where I got it from and which version it was.  Thanks. 

Figures Inc. (aka Wrestling Superstore) used to sell them - they had ads for them in some of the Apter mags around '99 to '00. Don't quote me on this but I believe they sold both the 'inmate' version and the Lawler/Larry Z one

Edit: I poked around eBay and found one from 2006 that has both the Figures Inc. branding *and* the WWE logo, so either I was referencing an earlier run of them, or I was wrong, and they were in fact WWE licensed:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/386050329484?hash=item59e2648b8c:g:~mEAAOSw-hRk6yQi&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8Ny6tRs%2BVX0dYsvaBiBfojPI1iwjvVB3ymHvxNel%2F4Y24WcklLIU7tS9OdsK7M8N5D1U7ogh%2BlH%2FkYydDY0I%2BviK8BtkwI%2Fqgnb%2Bb1alebuaNRK6AtPmMqzxSOSJMgmUgAfywQtM4KmZrLhj9UlXBOkqyfzLTOcNhfBi5SYOEhHJ2iDahllj0jySYCfofyctqxDP6eEUDwzfNe1lo8RYZEw2APrBqr55i3hRz4CzTzAyoZTXavse37lDS2oXwMfs0blRf30XfQglDgaRwcuJYQHg2WjlgqryfFtrUnmxDKcPOZkQ3Mn8PCwnOeEqmfH6pQ%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR7jXsbPsYg

Edit 2: this might go without saying, but in the event you are actually shopping for one of these: stay away from the Pakistani bootlegs!!

Edited October 24, 2023 by Zakk_Sabbath

[cwoy2j]

6 hours ago, GodzillaPerez said:

For "The Last Stampede" series of matches between The Midnight Express vs Stagger Lee and Bill Watts, I think most of those had either "Cornette wears a dress" or "Cornette has to dress as a baby" stipulations if the Midnights lost.

The Midnights lost every match.

I remember I had a VHS tape of random matches from early-80s Memphis matches and there were at least 4 matches of a young Rick Rude wearing a dress b/c he lost a match to Jerry Lawler. It wasn't something I traded for either. It was a commercial tape that my mom had gotten from a video store. It had the famous match where Savage piledrove Ricky Morton through a table and also the match where Hawk nosold Lawler's piledriver. 12 year old me didn't know what he had. A lot of the matches were clipped to hell but it was still pretty awesome. I vaguely remember there was a cage match where the cage looked like it was made out of chicken wire.

[HumanChessgame]

I was having a thought about guys with similar looks and gimmicks and wondered if Magnum TA and Rick Rude ever crossed paths, but cagematch says no. The world probably couldn't have handled that much mustache magnificence in the ring at the same time anyways.

[zendragon]

mustache Apuestas match

[Elsalvajeloco]

2 hours ago, cwoy2j said:

I remember I had a VHS tape of random matches from early-80s Memphis matches and there were at least 4 matches of a young Rick Rude wearing a dress b/c he lost a match to Jerry Lawler. It wasn't something I traded for either. It was a commercial tape that my mom had gotten from a video store. It had the famous match where Savage piledrove Ricky Morton through a table and also the match where Hawk nosold Lawler's piledriver. 12 year old me didn't know what he had. A lot of the matches were clipped to hell but it was still pretty awesome. I vaguely remember there was a cage match where the cage looked like it was made out of chicken wire.

I actually saw one of those Rude in a dress matches from the WMC TV studios not too long ago. Actually, it was two cause he did a squash match early in the show and then came back out with other members of the Hart Family for the obligatory end of the show, 2 out of 3 falls or TV time remaining multiple man match.

There was a some weird mix messaging during that Rude/Lawler program. I am not sure if the domestic abuse thing with Rick Rude and his valet predated this, but in other music videos thoroughout that period Lawler slugs the shit out of Rude's valet (or at the very least another blonde woman of similar build around the same time period). I do know that Lawler piledrives Rude's valet and that's the end of her in Memphis. So domestic abuse is wrong, BUT if she "deserves it" then it's totally A-OKAY!

Oh and speaking of Cornette, over the weekend I watching some HBO boxing card from 1997. During the first bout or the main event, during Michael Buffer's intros, one of the names that he read off before introducing the fighters was JJ Binns as the WBA representative. For some reason, I remember hearing that name somewhere. I thought hard and then BINGO. I remember hearing his name in the Cornette "In the News" compilation years back where Cornette recounts his (and the boys) run in with one of the local commissioners when Crockett expanded to doing shows in the Northeast. James Binns (Sr. aka JJ Binns) was the Pennsylvania commissioner for wrestling and boxing prior to working for one of the ABC boxing orgs. Cornette's description of him was hilarious and if goddamn Jim Cornette of all people calls you a character, then it must be true. During the broadcast, Lampley and Merchant bring over JJ Binns after some controversial decision or scorecard and Lampley notes beforehand that Mr. Binns is the fellow in the pinstripe suit. Apparently, in researching him, pinstripes is his calling card. He looks like a character from the old Batman TV series. And doing further research, he is an even bigger character than Cornette pointed out. He definitely comes off as a guy who WWF would have hired if they didn't have McDevitt. His story is a biopic waiting to happen. 

It's a must read: https://www.phillymag.com/news/2007/07/06/the-great-gusto-of-jimmy-binns/

[Cobra Commander]

4 minutes ago, HumanChessgame said:

wondered if Magnum TA and Rick Rude ever crossed paths, but cagematch says no.

yeah, Rude was jobbing in Mid-South for a few months when TA was there, but Rude was jobbing to heels before he got traded to Memphis

then Rude made it to JCP just before Magnum's car crash.. so there probably would have been some Rude/Fernandez vs Dusty/Magnum tag matches if not for that

[Elsalvajeloco]

Babyface enhancement talent Rick Rood in Mid South was just a skinny dude who looked like who would have been a stand in for some TV actor or have a walk on role in the late 1970s. Like if he played an under five on Hart to Hart, you wouldn't bat an eye.

The Rick Rude look really didn't get completed until WWF to be honest. Between Rude in like those lycra spandex work out pants and karate pants and homeless man boots Jake Roberts, WWF had the look upgrades down pat.